is an archaeological site on the Giza plateau in Greater Cairo , Egypt . The complex includes the Great Pyramid , the Pyramid of Khafre , and the Pyramid of Menkaure along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx . These pyramids were all built during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom in ancient Egypt between 2600 and 2500 BC. The site also includes several tombs and the remains of a workers’ village.

The complex is located on the fringes of the Western Desert about 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) west of the Nile River in the city of Giza , and about 13 kilometers (8 mi) southwest of downtown Cairo . The site (along with the neighboring city of Memphis ) was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979. ^[1]

The Great Pyramid and the Pyramid of Khafre are among the largest pyramids built in ancient Egypt , and they were popular historically as symbols of ancient Egypt in the Western imagination . ^[2] [3] They became famous in Hellenistic times , when the Great Pyramid was included by the Greek poet Antipater ^[4] as one of the Seven Wonders of the World . They are by far the oldest and only surviving ancient wonders of the world.

And the pyramids, according to one of the hypotheses, are royal tombs, each of which bears the name of the king who built it and was buried in it , and the hierarchical construction is a stage in the development of tomb architecture in ancient Egypt . Then it developed to take the form of a step pyramid by the engineer Imhotep , the minister of the pharaoh and King Djoser in the Third Dynasty . This was followed by two attempts by King Senefru, founder of the Fourth Dynasty, to build a complete hierarchical form. However, the backs of the two pyramids are not correct in shape, and they are located in Dahshur , one of them has a flattened base, and the other has a smaller shape, about half the size of the first. The engineer, Hemayuno, was able to engineer King KhufuTo achieve the perfect hierarchical shape, he built the pyramid of Khufu in Giza on an area of ​​13 acres, followed by the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure